Penn tennis defeats Seawolves

Both Penn men's and women's tennis teams crush Stony Brook Seawolves

The Penn men’s and women’s tennis teams secured victories on Friday against Stony Brook University with both squads exchanging entertaining and tense play with their opponents.

Both teams took on the visiting Seawolves at the Levy Tennis Pavillion on Friday afternoon.

The men (3-1) kicked off the day with three doubles matches against the Seawolves (0-2). Although the Quakers secured the point up for grabs with three victories, it was not easy.

After the No. 2 doubles team of sophomore Jeremy Court and freshman Vim De Alwis secured an 8-1 victory over their Stony Brook counterparts, the Quakers only needed to win one of the other two doubles matches to pick up the first point of the matchup.

The Seawolves pushed both matches to the limit, rallying from a 7-1 deficit against Austin Kaplan and Sylvester Wee to force a tiebreaker at 7-7. Still, the Red and Blue closed out each of the remaining matches, sweeping the doubles and securing a 1-0 team lead.

In the subsequent singles matches, the Quakers dominated with each of the six matches resulting in two-set victories for the Penn men, and a 7-0 sweep of the Seawolves.

Court improved his singles record to 4-0 on the season. The sophomore has dominated his opponents this season, winning all four of his matches by a combined score of 53-26. He has dropped only one set so far this year.

After dropping their opening meet against Penn State, the men have now scored three consecutive victories at Levy Pavillion in the midst of a six-match home stand. The Quakers next face local rival Temple on Feb. 20.

As for the second match of the day, the Penn women’s tennis team (4-0) won its toughest matchup to date, taking down defending American East champion Stony Brook 4-3.

The Quakers began the day just like their male counterparts, sweeping the doubles matches. The team’s hot start was led by the No. 22 ranked pair of sophomore Sol Eskenazi and freshman Sonya Latycheva, who easily won their match, 8-3.

Even with the dominant doubles performance, the Seawolves pushed Penn to the limit. The two teams split the six singles matches, with the Quaker victories coming from freshman Katherine Jania and juniors Stephanie Do and Jaime Yapp-Shing.

Despite its loss, Stony Brook came closer to victory than any of the Red and Blue’s other opponents this season.

It was the first time this year that the Red and Blue dropped a singles match. In the team’s previous three matchups, the Quakers had swept each of their opponents, 7-0.

Nini Lagvilava, Polina Movchan and Jackie Altansarnai picked up the three singles victories for the Seawolves.

With the victory on Friday, the Quaker women completed their season-opening homestand undefeated. After four victories at Levy, Penn hits the road next for a Feb. 23 matchup against William and Mary in Williamsburg, Va.